menotyou (u/menotyou)

menotyou commented on GUIs are built at least 2.5 times patricia.no/2025/05/30/wh... · Posted by u/mpweiher

throwaway2037 · 3 months ago

This part is genius:

    > I have made GUIs many, many times and my best case scenario goes something like:

    > 1. A design has been made, everyone loves it. Detailed drawings have been made.
    > 2. The devs are told to Make It
    > 3. The devs Make It, exactly to spec
    > 4. Everyone looks at it and everyone hates it
    > 5. So many meetings. So much stress. This Is Terrible! What To Do?
    > 6. A new design is made. So much better! Detailed drawings are made.
    > 7. The devs are told to Make It
    > 8. The devs Make It, exactly to spec
    > 9. Everyone looks at it and They Do Not Love It
    > 10. So many meetings. So much stress. This Is Terrible! What To Do?
    > 11. Someone suggests in one of the many, many meetings what amount to basically minor changes, moving something, changing some colors, changing some text, something like that.
    > 12. The devs Make It, exactly to spec
    > 13. Nobody’s happy. But nobody hates it.
    > 14. The devs are pissed.

I have similar experience. I think the real issue with GUIs: You have technical people building something (mostly) for non-technical people. Imagine developing a GUI for an internal app that the purchasing or accounting department uses. Most of your internal customers are non-technical. They don't think like devs. Plus, many devs have awful communication skills, especially with non-technical users, so large gaps in expectations can emerge.

The best experience I have ever seen: Have the internal customer team hire a semi-technical fresh grad. They are the primary dog-fooder of the new app. Force them to do their job only using the new app (as much as possible). They give lots and lots and lots of immediate, direct feedback to the devs. You can slowly iterate to something reasonable. The secret that makes mid-level managers upset: Don't plan; allow it be built organically, especially if your audience is internal.

Another thing that I have noticed: Some people are just way, way, way better at designing and implementing GUIs. I have no idea how to filter for these people, but "you know it when you see it".

menotyou · 3 months ago

Arguably lots of UIs getting worse with every iteration of redesign.

- Windows GUI went downhill from Windows 7 (or even XP) with every release.

- Outlook went from good over fair to annoying so that I finally replaced it as my personal client.

These are not the only examples I could name but they are the most prominent. I think the main problem is that both technical staff and UX designers both trying to make something "new" or "fancy" which is in most cases the opposite of something usable. E.g. Aero was fancy but it took away that my active window had one signal color header bar and all others were tamed. Now all windows are colorful and yelling at me at the same time. Orientation is gone.

And after that UIs got even more "fancy".

Step 13 ("Nobody's happy but nobody hates it") is the plateau when everybody is to tired to keep on fighting - a compromise, not the state of the GUI reached anything acceptable. It is not fancy enough anymore for developers and UX designers to be proud of but at the same time and is still annoyingly bad for the users.

menotyou commented on Carlsen quits World Rapid and Blitz championship after dress code disagreement chess.com/news/view/2024-... · Posted by u/throwup238

unsupp0rted · 8 months ago

Chess is supposed to be a game for smart people.

Why would smart people care about denim vs. trousers?

Let competitors wear pajamas- it makes no difference.

menotyou · 8 months ago

> Why would smart people care about denim vs. trousers?

Mostly it's about the sponsors. It's much more difficult to get sponsors for an event if the participants are dressed like they slept in their clothes. That's why organizers try to impose minimal standards on dresscodes.

Jeans and sneakers are maybe debatable, but players showed up with cargo pants, shorts or tank tops on other events.

In the FIDE regulation for that event jeans were explicitly mentioned as not allowed. FIDE would have made a fool out of themselves when allowing Magnus to wear the jeans.

menotyou commented on Cognitive load is what matters minds.md/zakirullin/cogni... · Posted by u/zdw

papaver · 8 months ago

a lot of good points but i feel like one of the biggest i've learned is missing...

leaning toward functional techniques has probably had the biggest impact on my productivity in the last 10 years. some of the highest cognitive load in code comes from storing the current state of objects in ones limited memory. removing state and working with transparent functions completely changes the game. once i write a function that i trust does its job i can replace its implementation with its name in my memory and move on to the next one.

menotyou · 8 months ago

Before OOP became popular the usage of global variables was discouraged in procedural languages because it was the cause of many bugs and errors.

In OOP global state variables were renamed to instance variables and are now widely used. The problem why it was discouraged beforehand did not went away by renaming but is now spread all over the place.

menotyou commented on Windows App now available on all major platforms techcommunity.microsoft.c... · Posted by u/alexrustic

menotyou · a year ago

"...connect to the Windows experience they know and love.."

I am not in that target group.

menotyou commented on I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it socratic-method.com/quote... · Posted by u/squircle

setopt · a year ago

When else do you need to quote it these days? In current societies with free speech, the main legal exceptions are usually for hate speech.

menotyou · a year ago

Here in Germany you can see how this argument evolves. For the Green party everything which disagrees with their position is declared nowadays rated as "hate speech" because the only conceivable reason for disagreeing with the green is people hate them.

menotyou commented on When objects are not enough (2021) tonysm.com/when-objects-a... · Posted by u/o2l

menotyou · a year ago

Yet another article about problems you'd never have if you wouldn't use object oriented paradigm.

menotyou commented on Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind theguardian.com/wellness/... · Posted by u/franze

tjpnz · a year ago

How do you know if you have it?

menotyou · a year ago

Quick test: Try to imagine the following and then answer the questions beneath.

Imagine a table with a ball on it. A person is approaching the table, pushes the ball gently, and the balls starts to roll.

Questions:

(1) What color has the ball?

(2) Is the person male or female?

(3) What material is the table made of?

(4) When you answered questions (1)-(3), did you know the answer beforehand, or did you think about when you were reading the questions?

Depending on your answer to question (4) you can assume if you have it or not.

menotyou commented on We Used to Think Everybody Heard a Voice Inside Their Heads – But We Were Wrong sciencealert.com/we-used-... · Posted by u/amichail

menotyou · a year ago

Russel Hurlburt differentiates between

- Inner Speech: Inner speech is the experience of speaking words in the person's own voice, with the same vocal characteristics (timbre; rate; inflection for commas, question marks, etc.; pauses; accents; stutters; etc.) as the person's own external speech, but with no external (real) noise. In its pure form, the experience of inner speech is identical to that of external speech except that the mouth does not move and no external production of sound is produced.

- Partially Worded Speech: Partially worded speech is the experience of speaking in one's own inner voice, except that some substantial number of the words that are being spoken are absent from awareness. Thus the person has the sense of speaking, and is directly aware of the vocal characteristics of that speaking: rate, inflection, timbre, rhythm, and so on. Furthermore, many of the words that are being spoken are present directly to awareness, precisely as in inner speech. However, some of the words are absent from the stream of speech. Space is "reserved" for these words, as if the words will be added at some later time.

- Unworded Speech: Unworded speech is the experience of speaking in one's own inner voice, except that there is no experience of the words themselves. Thus the person has the sense of speaking, and is directly aware of the vocal characteristics of that speaking: rate, inflection, timbre, rhythm, and so on

- Worded Thinking:: Worded thinking is the experience of thinking in particular distinct words, but those words are not being (innerly or externally) spoken, heard, seen, or voiced in any other way.

- Unsymbolized Thinking: Unsymbolized thinking is the experience of thinking some particular, definite thought without the awareness of that thought's being represented in words, images, or any other symbols.

https://hurlburt.faculty.unlv.edu/codebook.html

menotyou commented on Why Alcohol Is the Deadliest Drug addictioncenter.com/commu... · Posted by u/doener

t4ng0pwn3d · a year ago

> Well, obviously, far more people drink alcohol than use those two.

But saying alcohol is the most dangerous drug with this definition is still fair enough to say right? Carfentanil is more potent than fentanyl, but fentanyl is on the streets so it's what we should crack down on.

Per capita, alcohol kills more people than any other drug in most countries. It's also one of two drugs where you can die from withdrawals, being more dangerous than crack or heroin to detox from. It's also the only drug you get advertised 24/7, and that is socially forced down your throat (literally).

Not to say alcohol isn't fun, but it is the most dangerous drug to society, statistically.

menotyou · a year ago

> Per capita

Is this a good metric? For a potential drug consumer it is more relevant which health/social risk is involved if taking a certain drug once/sometimes/regularly.

menotyou commented on Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture echochess.com... · Posted by u/chedoku

ramly · a year ago

100% fair. Sorry about that quantxx. The mobile login was only meant to facilitate the login for mobile users through quick Twilio verification. Will move that to username or email instead. Really appreciate the feedback.

menotyou · a year ago

What do you need the email for?